International Dissertation Enhancement: Interactive Effects of Harvest, Grazing and Fire on Plant Populations and Communities in the Western Ghats, India.

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01104989Ticktin/Lisa MandleThis Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement award provides funding for a final trip to India for coPI Mandle to carry out a suite of additional field measurements for her dissertation research. The focus of the study is the interactive effects of harvest, grazing, and fire on the population dynamics of a harvested palm in a prime biodiversity site in India?s Western Ghats, where human activities strongly impact native plant communities. Although a number of studies of demographic effects of palm leaf-harvest have been done previously, this study breaks new intellectual ground through the application of new statistical population modeling techniques. The combination of multi-site comparative studies with explicit experimental studies will strengthen the coPI?s thesis. Research focused at the nexus between native plant populations and human activities is especially valuable in tropical sites such as the Western Ghats. What is learned in this project could potentially be both practically-applicable locally and a model approach for such research at many types of sites, particularly in the tropics. The broader impacts of this project are strong with respect to the level of cross-interaction between countries, the incorporation of Indian colleagues and local people in the field, as well as its potential to develop new modeling and experimental approaches for plant conservation efforts in the face of significant on-going human activities. This enhancement provides additional funding for international research to a current NSF Graduate Research Fellowship awardee.